Author Influence

 Notes:

            Forbes magazine quoted Leo Tulstoy while trying to explain the early childhood of Tucker Max. “Every unhappy family is unhappy in it’s own way.”

This was a start in trying to figure out not only why Tucker Max was driven to become a successful writer, but it also helped guide me into finding out who may have influenced Tucker Max as a writer.

Another quote from Forbes Magazine was from Tucker Max himself,

“I was raised by a father who wasn’t there and a mother who wasn’t there.”

His parents were divorced when he was a year old and his father didn’t show up in his life until he was sixteen. His mother was a flight attendant who was never home and made him move a lot of the time from place to place. She was also away from home because she was taking care of her mother who was an excessive drunk. He was never at the same school for more than a year until middle school. Now, Although this was difficult for him, he was still an outstanding student and didn’t give up though it may have been difficult for him.

I think that this plays a big role in Max and his writing. This helps understand why he may have been so wild in his college years, and why he needed to write to express his feelings about it.

Although, it may seem hard to find someone who influenced an author who invented a new literary genre, as Max started Fratire, He does claim to have some authors that influenced him.

I think the most influential author towards Tucker Max’s personal work would have to be P.J. O’Rourkes who wrote many books, but a specific one that influenced Max was All the trouble in the World. –  Max said that this shaped his early comedic voice. In his books, he has to relate to the male audience. Fratire, is the genre that he created, and this relates to males and the stereotypical college student masculine identity.

Max also said that P.J. O’Rourke showed him that he could be really edgy and funny, yet also smart. This was a very important influence to Max and its easy to see in his work not only how he’s humorous, but how he is also a crafty writer with a unique style and voice that captures his audience.

“Something is broken inside me, and it’s easier to try to fix it in other people.”  Was a quote by
-Elgin James, and was also listed as one of Tucker Max’s favorite quotes of all time.

I think that this quote helps to understand Tucker’s writing, and also understand him as a person. He grew up with a broken family, and this is relatable to him as a person.

Now, out of all of the authors that Max talks about, from O’Rourke to Malcolm X, he never mentions anything about how they have influenced his unique style, just the aesthetic aspect of his works.

            I think that this is the main reason why he was given a genre of his own. Not only does he write in a creative humorous way, but he has a unique style. He writes in way that I haven’t seen from any other author. He lists the exact dates and times of the events he’s talking about. He gives you a date and time to better help put you in the time frame of what was going on, which is part of the unique style that he developed himself.

            Although Tucker Max may not have followed in another authors footsteps relating to the style of his text, I think that its fair to say that even Tucker Max, the wild college party animal, had influence from other great writers that helped him become successful and grow as a writer himself.